Examining the Development of Intercultural Maturity Among College Students

Using comparative case study methods, we analyzed longitudinal data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education to examine if and how 23 college students' capacities for intercultural maturity (ICM) changed over the course of their college experiences. Those whose capacities increased often had immersion experiences wherein they were able to sustain contact across differences in culture and/or socially constructed identities. Moreover, they also had multiple experiences of exploring one socially constructed identity (e.g., race, class) that highlighted one domain of development (i.e., cognitive, intrapersonal, interpersonal). In contrast, participants who maintained but did not increase or decrease, their capacities for ICM had experiences wherein they explored multiple socially constructed identities and cultures across all domains of development.